The Emperor's New Name
by B0nk3rs
Summary: Listening to space radio for 10,000 years is only useful if you can process any of the information. Unluckily for Shiro he processed quite a lot
1. The Nightmare before Breakfast

so the summary has almost nothing to do with what i'm about to post! yay!

I don't own Voltron: Legendary Defender, if I did it would be a very different show

everything's gonna be a lil bit disjointed

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Sometimes when he dreams he's back at the Garrison. Eating shitty mac'n'cheese and stressing over theoretical physics. In those dreams there's a table full of cadets, complaining along with him. In those dreams it's just the two of them, him and Matt helping Keith with his algebra. In those dreams he's talking to himself and the person across the table sits and sobs and screams and- it's alright, because it's only a dream. Besides, Takashi knows Matt would never-

I'm not gonna make it

Takashi knows Matt-

I'll never see my family again!

Takashi-

TAKASHI!

sometimes he wishes he didn't dream at all.

Matt bolts upright in a cold sweat. Shit like that was why he didn't sleep anymore. How the fuck was he supposed to sleep after that recurring nightmare! He kicked his sheets off and scrubbed a hand over his face, one more sleepless night probably wouldn't kill him.

That decided he wrapped himself up in his sheet, slipped his slippers on and shuffled out the door. Allura was usually awake at this time and training against a gladiator or two; unless she was demonstrating a move she hated spectators and whoever wandered in before breakfast usually ended up limping out it. That person was normally Keith which worked out fine as they seemed to be working out their combined stress levels on each other and wouldn't go back for more until 48 hours had passed.

But Keith was still bruised from Voltron's last mission. Matt yawned and shuffled faster, his sister might be up.

Katie always, (Pidge he scolded himself) left a disaster zone wherever she worked and normally Hunk or Coran were the ones attempting to sort out the trail of used tech she left behind. When they'd asked Matt to help he'd laughed in their faces and explained how this was way better than the mess she usually made. Passing her open and, he looked in, empty room he realised this meant he'd have to pry her tech out of her hands and then bully her into bed after. He rested his face against a wall, she probably hadn't slept at all since yesterday.

He considered it, remembered her Bayard was a taser and promptly scurried in the other direction- Allura could beat him up but at least she wasn't going to electrocute him for fun.

Probably not.

'Probably.'

Matt stopped dead at the end of the corridor. ...He could have sworn he heard someone speak but as he strained his ears, holding his breath all the while their was nothing but the hum of the castle.

Matt started walking.


	2. The Trouble with Tables

Hola, it's me again with the shortest chapters this side of noncompetitive writing! Reminder that no characters belong to me unless you've never heard of them :)

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At breakfast the table started glitching out. It started with the sound of static which almost immediately escalated into a strobe of colour and sound. It stopped after 20 ticks (carefully counted by Hunk) showing the inside of a lion then the table went blank again.

"WHAT THE-"

"JESUS QUIZNAK WHAT-"

"THE LITERAL SHIT-"

"HOW LONG HAS IT-"

"CORAN?"

As only one person in the castle knew the table could be used as an interactive surface at all, the rest of the table had weapons drawn in around half a tic. Allura's screech caused them to be glancing semi-suspiciously at the previously innocent dining table and also trying to stare at Coran.

The alien in question twirled his moustache, produced a handheld device out of nowhere and began scanning the table, "This table's been broken longer than I can remember!" His grin slowly turned contemplative and he leapt onto the table ignorant of their bemused expressions. He hopped lightly off the other side and tapped the table gently.

It sparked in his face with a sound like feedback. More weapons appeared out of thin air.

Coran eyed the table thoughtfully, "Maybe I should get Slav to take a looksie, this is probably just a sign we need more repairs"

For second Coran's expression seemed to droop but it was gone in a blink, "In fact I'll fetch him right away" the Altean winked conspiratorially, "Might as well give him something to do other than worry his blankets" And he strode off calling his name.

The was a moment of pause where the paladins and Allura sheepishly put their weapons away to sit at the malfunctioning table. It took them another moment to realise that Matt was still staring directly at the table in a battle ready stance.

"Matt"

"Did Coran seem kinda, weird, to you just then?" He'd turned his head to face the door.

He flinched when Lance laughed and whipped around to face him, "Aw bro, that's just Coran! He's a weird kinda guy!"

Matt couldn't help but still think something was off.

"...Sure. Guess I'm just hungry." But he smiled anyway and sat.

He ignored the concerned eyes of his sister as Hunk started extolling the virtues of the new root plant he'd been cooking with that 'totally tastes like plantain' and started scooping food too into his mouth.

Whatever he thought had happened in the corridor earlier probably had nothing to do with this new technological glitch apart from the Castle as their place of origin.

 _'Self delusion doesn't suit you'_

He shivered.

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Thank you rainbowrider1290 for being my first (and only) reviewer!


	3. Lights, Lights and Action

**Still own nothing but the premise!**

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"Self delusion doesn't suit me." He's staring at his reflection on his helmet "I know exactly what's wrong with Keith. I know exactly how it relates to me as an individual." His shift could be seen as an uncomfortable one this time.

"Willfully ignoring the issue does nothing to solve it especially because it's all gonna come to a head soon." He bent at the waist suddenly, face clutched in his robot hand and his right on the arm of his seat. His knuckles are white with the strength of his grip and his fingers twitch

"I FUCKING KNOW WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN ALREADY, WORSE CASE SCENARIOS ARE ACTUALLY POSSIBLE"

He stays doubled over till his breathing eases out and slides back into his seat with a face blank of all emotion. Shiro's seat slides backward and he smoothly stands and exits the cockpit.

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They had all brought up the holo map of the supercluster where the Galra's base of operations lay. So far their greatest accomplishment had been a dizzying light show while they dragged, enlarged and slashed at the coordinates each wanted to focus on. This had been tolerable the first varga but after two Matt had stopped and just watched them continue without him.

At this point the shouting of insults had completely eclipsed their original reason for the meeting. Only Slav was still vaguely on task, mindlessly flicking between the coordinates with his eight arms whenever Allura or Kolivan spoke, only adding to the pounding headache Matt was developing.

With unfocused eyes he noted the Crab Nebula zoom past his face for the nth time since this whole farce began, if Slav kept going like that he'd get the space version of repetitive strain injury. Matt stifled a curse as the nebula zipped past in the opposite direction, Matt would _insure_ Slav got an injury if he did that one more-

The Crab Nebula whizzed past his eyes.

"Could you cut that shit out!" The universe disappeared and Slav flinched backwards off the console.

Allura and Kolivan were staring at him blankly, they were shocked though both were trying to hide it. Matt tried not to snarl at them, acting as if he hadn't heard them cursing each other for vargas, sometimes he felt like the only adult around. _If only..._

Matt sighed.

"If you're done exploring our options might I recommend we got to lunch?" Both aliens nodded silently, looking vaguely ashamed. They could probably hear his teeth grinding, _good,_ he refused to sit through another one of these. He probably shouldn't be so hard on them, according to Katie they were taking _his_ disappearance hard. The only reason they'd gotten along so well had largely been  Shiro \- the only person both saw as their equal, therefore the only person allowed to interject into an argument and offer their own ideas.

Matt turned away from them and blinked hard, now all they had was a sub-par replacement who had managed to offend both by questioning their existence and authenticity with his first impression. _Nice fucking going Holt._

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 **Sorry it's been a while, school's been picking up lately- exam season is almost upon us! ;D. I was planning on taking this somewhere more than where it is this chapter but I think it's alright as is.**

 **Thanks again rainbowrider1290! And no, I'm not latinx I just like to spice things up a bit**


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